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Truck Share?

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Started 1 year ago by lifeontwowheels
Latest reply from lifeontwowheels

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lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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Transportation of equipment has been one of our biggest logistics issues for Pedal Instead. We have one small truck we can usually access but the poor little thing is about on it's last legs. We've started soliciting either event organizers to source a truck for the weekend or found volunteers with something we can use. We're doing Budget rental this weekend for Asian Festival and after getting the bill, realizing this may not be a long term solution.

Are there any other non-profit or similar groups who are finding themselves in a similar situation? Would you be interested in sharing in the cost to purchase a suitable vehicle, yearly maintenance and insurance? Organization would be pretty easy using a shared Google calender.

Most of our events tend to be weekends with set up early and tear down late, leaving a large chunk of time for another group to use it between.

Let me know if you are interested.

Posted 1 year ago #
10sun
Columbus, OH
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What size truck are you looking for?

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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10sun wrote >>
What size truck are you looking for?

We've done it in a mini-Nissan. Full size would be better and reduce the trips needed.

For us it pretty much boils down to that we might use it a total of 6-8 times a month depending on the number of events. It doesn't make sense to buy, maintain and insure on our own but it would take some stress off the arrangements. So if we can split costs 5-6 ways and find a way to share with several groups, it would be great.

Posted 1 year ago #
Motorist
The Trots
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How much does Pedal Instead charge per event? Couldn't you tell events that the cost is X if they provide a truck or X+Budget rental if they don't?

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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Motorist wrote >>
How much does Pedal Instead charge per event? Couldn't you tell events that the cost is X if they provide a truck or X+Budget rental if they don't?

This was my question today, actually. Currently we are telling people that transportation is part of that and depending on the event, do ask for the truck. The issue is that it puts us on shaky ground event to event not having something there. We've already had a few interesting moments this season.

For the 3 days Budget is charging something like $200-250 for a cargo van. That's around $2,000-3000 for 10-12 events. Seems the smarter money is on pooling resources with groups facing similar issues and letting that $3000 spread to greater use.

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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And yeah, before anyone says it:

Yeah, we've actually talked about biking equipment to events and have some discussions about what that set up would look like. Especially those events very close in to the University Area where everything is stored. It's not a priority at the moment with other things more important, however there is a minute possibility that it may be a reality to Pedal Instead ourselves someday.

We will have pedal powered corral lighting for night events this year, though!

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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This may not work do to scheduling but Home Depot and Lowes rent trucks by the hour which may be cheaper if all you are doing is set up and tear down.

last I rented one it was $19.95 for the first 75 minutes and $5 for each additional 15 minutes.

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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cc wrote >>
This may not work do to scheduling but Home Depot and Lowes rent trucks by the hour which may be cheaper if all you are doing is set up and tear down.
last I rented one it was $19.95 for the first 75 minutes and $5 for each additional 15 minutes.

Good idea, I might look into that. Hopefully the math is right but it looks to be around $115 for 6 hours (3 hours for set up and 3 for tear down).

The only thing I can think of is the hours Lowes or Home Depot are open. We're setting up Asian Festival at 6-7AM Saturday to be ready for their start at 10 AM. Tear down on a Sunday for a late event would probably be after retail hours as well.

Posted 1 year ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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At least at the Home Depot on Sawmill, you can't just rent the truck, it rents along with a purchase. Plus, it's in high demand and you couldn't have it sitting around all day until you pack up.

Posted 1 year ago #
patient_zero
Falafel District
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Andrew, you provide a valuable community service that generally takes place in our local park system. Have you approached Recreation and Parks or the mayor's office to see if they would be willing to transport, or even store and transport Pedal Instead equipment?

Also, I get decent business rates for Penske truck rentals. A 12 or 16' truck may be all you need to move everything at once.

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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patient_zero wrote >>
Andrew, you provide a valuable community service that generally takes place in our local park system. Have you approached Recreation and Parks or the mayor's office to see if they would be willing to transport, or even store and transport Pedal Instead equipment?
Also, I get decent business rates for Penske truck rentals. A 12 or 16' truck may be all you need to move everything at once.

We just found today that a cargo van works perfect. We have utilized parks and rec in the past. Last year we did the American Community Garden Association meeting at Franklin Park. They wanted to extend the service and we asked that they make arrangements for transportation so we could stay. They worked it out with Franklin Park to use one of the maintenance/grounds trucks.

Pedal Instead actually started out a few years back under the city's leadership with the Mayor's Green Team. COBAC, I believe Third Hand and a few other organizations helped staff the corrals initially at events like Comfest. With the city budget issues, the service was turned over to University Area Enrichment Association's management 2 years ago. So that's the kind of long way of saying I don't think city support is possible. Storage isn't an issue at the moment. It's more the getting it there and back.

Budget may work if we can book far enough in advance. What killed us on this one was we had to keep it longer since our hours didn't match retail hours. I'll pass on the Penske suggestion and see if we can compare rates.

We're looking at creative solutions that can benefit us and other organizations.

Posted 1 year ago #
TaraK
probably at the coffee shop
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cc wrote >>
This may not work do to scheduling but Home Depot and Lowes rent trucks by the hour which may be cheaper if all you are doing is set up and tear down.
last I rented one it was $19.95 for the first 75 minutes and $5 for each additional 15 minutes.

I don't think any of them still do this w/o purchase. Tried myself about 6 months ago.

There are lots of folks looking to earn extra money on CL by moving things and/or doing manual labor, and they often mention, "I have a big truck!" They have cheap rates and some are insured (i.e. for what they're hauling). I would say it would be very affordable to strike up a regular partnership with them.

Posted 1 year ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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TaraK wrote >>

cc wrote >>
This may not work do to scheduling but Home Depot and Lowes rent trucks by the hour which may be cheaper if all you are doing is set up and tear down.
last I rented one it was $19.95 for the first 75 minutes and $5 for each additional 15 minutes.

I don't think any of them still do this w/o purchase. Tried myself about 6 months ago.
There are lots of folks looking to earn extra money on CL by moving things and/or doing manual labor, and they often mention, "I have a big truck!" They have cheap rates and some are insured (i.e. for what they're hauling). I would say it would be very affordable to strike up a regular partnership with them.

I'll pass that on.Ã‚Â Only issue I could see would be early and late hours for set up and tear down, which may be an issue for some.

If we can do some rate comparisons across different companies, the Budget/Hertz/Penske/Thrifty rental may be the best for us.

The big factors are reducing cost and reducing reliance on third parties. Co-owning a vehicle with several groups seems to be the best when it comes to both. We have the truck, so no worries if the person with the truck forgets or flakes out last minute-we can just find someone else to drive. Same with costs, we wouldn't have to incur any plenty for reserving last minute.

Posted 1 year ago #